jjanders wrote:
The question is:
What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)
Now, I was going to use the story my sophomore year of college when I did terrible and took a year off of school, but that is more of a failure, not a mistake, I guess I see a "mistake" as being less of a big deal.....besides, I'm using that story for the "Tell us about your undergrad experience" essay.
In addition, the question doesn't ask to describe a mistake and what you learned from it, just the latter. So I was going to write a general essay about mistakes and what I have learned about making them, and maybe provide a few very, very brief examples, but mostly try to focus on what I've learned and how I apply that to my everyday life now.
Thoughts? Does this make sense?
Ok...my take on this is a little different. So, when HBS talks about learnings from a mistake, obviously it is asking you to relate to mistakes in a personal context. So, for me, a description of what did I do wrong would be required. It will be brief, yes, but it would be there. My analysis of this question went something like this....
Mistake: professional/personal? specific?
Learning:
1.) What was wrong about the action
2.) did you realise the wrong part when you acted that way. If yes, how & why?
3.) What did you do to make the wrong right, if anything?
4.) how has this affected you as a person?
5.) how has this translated into your actions in a similar situation after that incident?
Of course, thats a lot to write in 400 words but for me, structuring it out like this has helped a lot.